7 Ways To Maximize Your Online Marketing Budget

Jayson DeMers
, ContributorI demystify SEO and online marketing for business owners.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

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7 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Online Marketing Budget

I try to promote the idea that marketing isn’t an expense; it’s an investment. Every dollar you spend should be working toward earning you more than a dollar in benefits, whether that means more conversions, attracting more traffic, or just increasing your overall brand exposure.

In any case, throwing more money into your marketing and advertising strategy is almost sure to earn you more results if you allocate budget strategically. The key to achieving efficiency in a marketing campaign is to make sure you’re getting the full value out of every dollar you spend—no matter how big or small your budget is.

These are some of the best approaches to earn you the highest return from your marketing spend:

1. Use complementary strategies.

You can get more out of your marketing budget by distributing it among strategies that naturally complement each other. Rather than investing in two completely separate tactics, you can invest in two tactics that naturally enhance each other. For example, content marketing and SEO are two strategies that could feasibly be invested in separately; but if you invest in both of them, each will help the other see better results. In this case, content will give you more opportunities to build relevance for your target SEO keywords, and SEO will drive more traffic to your content so it gets more views, shares, and conversions.

2. Ditch what isn't working.

This is a strategy that too many marketers are unwilling to follow. If you have your budget distributed evenly among three separate campaigns, and one is clearly getting inferior results compared to the others, don’t keep dumping your money into it—ditch it. There are some exceptions to this rule; some strategies, like SEO, take at least several months (depending on the competition) to fully develop. But for the most part, if you’re consistently seeing lackluster results from one of your investments, don’t invest any more money into it, even if its ROI is technically positive.

3. Repurpose your material.

Every marketing or advertising strategy you use will demand some type of core content or material. For example, in social media marketing, you’ll need short headlines or updates, along with on-site material to link to, and every ad you create will need a central message and a call to action. If you create new material every time you have a marketing need, you’ll end up in a constantly demanding cycle of creative effort. Instead, you can recycle content from one medium, and reuse it in other applications in the future.

4. Avoid overpaying.

Even if you take a mostly DIY approach, you’re still going to end up paying for some of your resources and services. For example, you might pay a graphic designer to help you finalize an ad design, or you might spend some money to boost one of your Facebook posts to a wider audience. When paying for services, do your research, and avoid overpaying; marketing services range from very cheap to very expensive. Sometimes, those cost fluctuations are justified. Other times, they’re completely unfounded. Look at each provider’s experience, the value you’re getting for the money, and all other options available to you.